Live 8
Live 8 was a series of concerts that took place in July 2005, in the G8 nations and South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 Conference and 31st G8 summit held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire, Scotland from July 6-9, 2005; it also coincides with the 20th anniversary of Live Aid. Running parallel with the UK's Make Poverty History campaign, the shows planned to pressure world leaders to drop the debt of the world's poorest nations, increase and improve aid, and negotiate fairer trade rules in the interest of poorer countries. Ten simultaneous concerts were scheduled for 2 July and one for 6 July. More than 1,000 musicians performed at the concerts, which were broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cpress/20050623/ca_pr_on_en/music_live_8_cda_10 Live Aid and Band Aid organizer Bob Geldof announced the event on 31 May 2005. Many former Live Aid acts offered their services to the cause. Prior to the official announcement of the event many news sources (see e.g. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/news/chartnews/050526_liveaid.shtml http://www.nme.com/news/112486.htm) referred to the event as Live Aid 2. However Geldof and co-organiser Midge Ure have since explicitly said they don't think of the event as the same as Live Aid. Geldof said "This is not Live Aid 2. These concerts are the start point for The Long Walk To Justice, the one way we can all make our voices heard in unison." Organizers of Live 8 presented the "Live 8 List" to the world leaders at the G8 summit. This is a list of names compiled from around the world of people who have voiced support of the Live 8 mission to "Make Poverty History www.live8list.com. Names from the list also appeared on the giant televisions at each concert during the broadcast. Concerts There were ten concerts held on 2 July 2005, most of them simultaneously. The first to begin was held at the Makuhari Messe in Tokyo, with Rize being the first of all the Live 8 performers. During the opening of the Philadelphia concert, Will Smith led the combined audiences of London, Philadelphia, Berlin, Rome, Paris and Barrie (outside Toronto) in a synchronised finger click. This was to represent the deathof a child every three seconds, due to poverty. Bob Geldof was at the event in Hyde Park, London and made numerous appearances on stage, including an impromptu performance of I Don't Like Mondays. Some of these were also shown to other venues. Special guests appeared throughout the concerts, with Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, making a speech at the London show and Nelson Mandela appearing in the South African venue. Guest presenters, ranging from sporting stars to comedians, also introduced acts. The final event will be held in Edinburgh on 6 July 2005 and goes by the name "Edinburgh 50,000: The Final Push". It will feature further performances from some of the artists from the other concerts, and is the closest of the eleven to the actual location of the G8 summit. External Links * This page is based upon the longer one at Wikipedia * Danny gets drunk at Live8, on which he wrote the following online review